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In the News

This section contains an expanding digest of recent stories from other publications that VAX staff considers compelling and relevant to its global readership. Here you will find links to features that have appeared in newspapers and magazines, such as The New York Times, as well as science journals, such as Nature.

Anti-Same Sex Marriage Act 2013 not problem to HIV treatment — NACA  
John Idoko of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS in Nigeria said no provision of new legislation criminalizing same-sex behavior will preclude people from receiving HIV treatment. See Vanguard article...

Researchers open door to new HIV therapy  
Researchers at the University of California—Berkeley and the U.S. National Institutes of Health have captured high-resolution images of HIV’s Nef protein bound with a main host protein, discovering a portion of the host protein that will make a promising target for the next generation of HIV medications. See Science Codex article...

The case for taking one pill a day to prevent HIV  
Health researchers at the University of California—Los Angeles advocate for prescribing newly approved Truvada, which is “safer and more effective than the medical community originally thought.” See Global Post article...

The Quest for an HIV-1 Vaccine — Moving Forward  
Harvard’s Dan Barouch discusses the “unprecedented” challenges faced by those developing HIV vaccines, but says recent scientific progress means there are “clear reasons for optimism.” See New England Journal of Medicine article...

How innovations will pave the way to an AIDS-free generation  
IPM’s Zeda Rosenberg argues that innovations will pave the way to an AIDS-free generation, saying “a highly effective vaccine would be the holy grail of HIV prevention” but “no vaccine will be 100 percent effective or appropriate for everyone.” See Devex article...

The Vaccination Effect: 100 Million Cases of Contagious Disease Prevented  
A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that vaccination programs for children have prevented more than 100 million cases of serious contagious disease in the US since 1924. See NY Times article...

MIT president: Sequester choking innovation economy  
MIT president writes op-ed in Boston Herald on the chilling effect sequestration will have on innovation in the US, particularly in overcoming scientific challenges like finding an AIDS vaccine. See Boston Herald article...

Ghana to attain HIV targets by 2015  
Ghana’s ambition of attaining zero new HIV infections, discrimination, and AIDS-related deaths by 2015 is attainable.See Ghana Broadcasting Corporation article...

Afraid to Get Tested? Slow Down and Think About It  
Despite consumer willingness to scour the internet for health information, many still are hesitant to get tested for diseases like HIV / AIDS. See NY Times blog...

Unconventional vaccine shows promise against malaria  
Strategies relies on bottled mosquitoes irradiated to weaken the malaria parasite. Seizing on 40-year-old studies that showed that more than 90% of volunteers were protected against malaria infection after they received more than 1000 bites from P. falciparum–infected mosquitoes that had been irradiated to weaken the parasite, researchers have developed a vaccine that mimics the effect of those bites. SeeScience article...

Immune suppression and smoking history are risks for HPV-related anal disease in HIV-positive gay men  
Risk factors for human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated anal disease in HIV-positive gay men are similar to those known to increase the risk of HPV-related cervical disease, according to research published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. A low CD4 cell count and a history of chlamydia infection increased risk of infection with high-risk HPV types, and smoking was associated with high-grade pre-cancerous anal lesions. See aidsmap article...

Deal Done over HeLa cell line  
Family of Henrietta Lacks agrees to release of genomic data. See Nature article...

Zambia: Activist Questions Sustainability of Zambia's HIV Funding Plan  
As government officials in Zambia claim victory meeting goals from the 2001 Abuja Declaration, a prominent Zambian activist suggests that the country’s antiretroviral treatment program is not sustainable and that legislators lack a clear plan for moving forward. See AllAfrica article...

Apes need vaccines, too  
Research with captive chimpanzees is vital to the development and testing of vaccines that can help save the lives not just of humans but also of wild chimpanzees and gorillas. It could even help those species from becoming extinct. SeeNY Times Op-Ed article...

A new avenue for fighting disease?  
Stem cells in urine easy to isolate and have potential for numerous therapies. See Science Daily article...

Bacterial Meningitis Finds New Niche in Gay Communities  
The recent outbreaks are all N. meningitidis serogroup C, a particularly aggressive strain. See Science article...

Legal fight darkens leading AIDS website  
Falling out between groups that organize annual CROI meeting. See Science article...

AIDS activist Larry Kramer ties the knot  
Award-winning playwright of “The Normal Heart” weds longtime partner in hospital ceremony. See NY Times article...

Immune cells in action  
High quality images show how natural killer cells attack viruses and tumors. See Science Daily article...

Deadly pig virus slips through US borders  
Researchers race to track spread of coronavirus. See Nature article...

Pakistan battles polio, and its people’s mistrust  
Two years ago, India, Pakistan’s rival in everything from nuclear weapons to cricket, eliminated polio. Can Pakistan do the same? See NY Times article...

Obama Orders Stepped Up Effort Against HIV/AIDS In U.S.  
An executive order from the White House called for better coordination in combating the epidemic. See Reuters article...

Tuberculosis Waits Patiently for its Comeback  
Although the total number of TB cases is falling worldwide, more dangerous strains appear to be proliferating. View slide show in Scientific American...

India Intensifies Search for a Killer  
A mysterious form of encephalitis that emerged in 1995 is spreading. Read NY Times article...

Unlikely Partners, Freeing Chimps from the Lab  
Jane Goodall says it was a “Damascus moment” that turned her from the groundbreaking studies of chimpanzees in the wild that revealed their complex social and emotional lives, to a life of nomadic global activism on their behalf. Read NY Times article...

Science Media: Centre of Attention  
The aim of the UK-based Science Media Centre is get scientific voices into media coverage and policy debates — and by doing so, to improve the accuracy with which science is presented to the public. Is it working? Read Nature article...

Solution to Vaccine Mystery Starts to Crystallize  
For 80 years, people have received injections of alum as part of vaccines, but only recently have researchers begun to explain how the compound helps stimulate immunity. Read Science article...
For more information on alum and adjuvants, see VAX July 2011 Primer.